like i take omega 3 pills, i dont know if they help my meditation, but they help my mood and they make bad dreams go away (if i quit taking them for long periods of time i actually have bad dreams but when on them i dont...) , they are supossed to be good for depression, maybe there is a conection.

i also heard a piece on NPR about mind enhancing drugs (a.d.d. drugs etc) and many people are getting them to help with memory and focus. i was sorta curious if one could use them to strengthen concentration meditation, but i have no way of testing this...

ginko? ginseng? B12?

what are you hooked on?

สัพเพ สัตตา สุขีตา โหนตุ

the mountain may be heavy in and of itself, but if you're not trying to carry it it's not heavy to you- Ajaan Suwat

Coffee, I definitely notice it effects my meditation if I have 2 or 3 strong cups during the day before I sit. However, I don't notice a difference between having 1 cup and having none. I have tried many times to stop altogether but it seems this is quite a strong attachment for me.

Also, having lived in Australia all my life, I am very attached to vegemite.

Four types of letting go:

1) Giving; expecting nothing back in return2) Throwing things away3) Contentment; wanting to be here, not wanting to be anywhere else4) "Teflon Mind"; having a mind which doesn't accumulate things

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion … ...He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

I would say that coffee wasn't used to help them pray so much as it was probably used to help them stay awake!And when it comes to my meditation, I usually don't start an early morning session without first having a cup of coffee.Kind regards

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.” - Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:in mountain clefts and chasms,loud gush the streamlets,but great rivers flow silently.- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I've been drinking coffee in copious quantities for forty years. About 10 years ago, I reached some sort of "tipping point" at which time I became hyper-sensitive to the caffeine. Sometime after that, I switched to half-caf which has worked well.

Regards: AdvaitaJ

The birds have vanished down the sky. Now the last cloud drains away.We sit together, the mountain and me, until only the mountain remains. Li Bai

yogamaggie wrote:As far as I know, coffee drinking arose during the early modern period so I doubt Christian monks were drinking coffee.

In Ethiopia there is the story of how coffee was discovered. A goat herder watched as his goats ate from a plant and he noticed that they were full of energy and vibrant. He tried the plant and then introduced it to the world. It happened in the 9th century A.D. Historians agree that Ethiopia is the country of origin for the discovery and few dispute it. Ethiopia is one of the largest exporters of coffee today.

I’ve never found any external substance such as ginko, caffeine, or B12 to be particularly helpful during meditation. If anything, coffee has been a serious detriment to more than one of my meditation sessions. Usually if I have a full stomach and I’m comfortable, it’s enough to keep my mind focused.